1. BETTER TOGETHER?:
SCURL AND HE LIBRARY
COLLABORATION IN SCOTLAND
CHRIS BANKS
DIRECTOR OF LIBRARY SERVICES
IMPERIAL COLLEGE, LONDON
(FORMER CHAIR OF SCURL)

2. Personal introduction
 New to HE
 New to Scotland

3. About SCURL
SCURL exists to:
 promote excellence in university and research library services
 improve services for users and maximise resource through collaborative
action
 provide a forum to assist strategic planning and management in the
libraries of its members
 work with other organisations, including those in the Scottish Higher
Education sector, and other domains towards the creation of a co-operative
higher education library infrastructure in Scotland
 work closely with the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish Library
and Information Council
 consult with, and advise other appropriate related organisations on library
matters
 establish, maintain, and promote projects which further the aims of the
organisation
 lobby funding and planning bodies on matters of shared interest, to provide
mutual support for members

4. SCURL members
 25 member institutions, from
the small (Glasgow School of
Art) to the large (Edinburgh
University) including:
 All Scottish University and
HEI libraries
 Open University
 the two major public
reference libraries in
Glasgow and Edinburgh
 National Library of Scotland
 National Museums Scotland
 Royal Botanic Garden
Edinburgh Library and
Archives
National Library of Scotland

5. Representation
www.scurl.ac.uk
5
 Arranged in groups or related institutions (constituencies)
 Each constituency elects a representation to the Business
Committee
 The following positions are elected:
 Chair
 Vice-Chair (succeeds as Chair)
 Treasurer
 Secretary
 SCURL is supported by a Service Development Manager

6. Communities of Practice
www.scurl.ac.uk
6
 Support the work of SCURL
and increase involvement of
staff at all levels and include:
 Deputy Directors
 Legal Issues Group
 Response to the HM
Government Consultation
on Copyright
 Systems Librarians
 Collections Management
 Health Group
 Institutional Repositories
Group
 Mobile Technologies Group
Robert Gordon Learning Café

7. SCURL Strategic Aims
A To improve services for users
and maximise resource through
collaborative action and shared
services
B To collaborate with other
organisations, sectors and
domains towards the creation of
a co-operative library
infrastructure in Scotland
C To advocate matters of shared
interest on behalf of members to
funding & planning bodies and
other professional organisations
D To provide mutual support for
members
E To develop SCURL as an
organisation
St Andrews University Library

8. Strategic Priorities 2012 - 2014
 Effective collaborative procurement
 Maximise access to physical and digital collections
 Showcase Scotland’s research and Collections
 Develop and promote collaborative shared services and
systems
 Effective advocacy and promotion
 SCURL organisation redevelopment
 Individual members of the Business Committee “own” and
lead on individual strategic priorities
8
www.scurl.ac.uk

9. Procurement
 Scottish Higher
Education Digital Library
– SHEDL
 Collaborative
procurement of
electronic resources for
all Scottish HE
institutions
 Award-winning initiative
 Scottish Procurement
Network – SCOPNet
 Print books & Journals
 E-Books

10. http://scurl.ac.uk/what-we-do/procurement/shedl/

11. About SHEDL
 Led by the SCURL
 Was the first super-consortial purchasing scheme of its kind
in the UK.
 Driven in part by Scottish pooling

13. SHEDL contd
 Facilitated by JISC Collections
 Has provided the eighteen Scottish Higher Education
Institutions, the National Library of Scotland, and National
Museums Scotland with access to over 3,460 online
journals and 39,000 ebooks from leading academic
publishers
 Collaborative procurement with the NHS NES was
achieved with the publisher Karger.

14. SHEDL achievements
 Supports about £5m of procurement
per annum (10-15% of member
institutions’ total journals budgets)
 Existing publishers include: Springer,
ACM, ACS, ASME. CUP, EUP, OUP,
Sage, Project MUSE, Web Of
Knowledge, Brill, Karger, JoVE & Social
Sciences Directory
 Ebook content from Springer and CUP
 Supports about £5m of
procurement per annum (10-
15% of member institutions’
total journals budgets)
 Existing publishers include:
Springer, ACM, ACS, ASME.
CUP, EUP, OUP, Sage,
Project MUSE, Web Of
Knowledge, Brill, Karger,
JoVE & Social Sciences
Directory
 Ebook content from Springer
and CUP
Edinburgh Napier University Library

15.  Steering Group
 Working Group
 Received the Shared Services
Award in the Scottish Parliament
 Invited by Universities Scotland to
document SHEDL for Shared
Services Case Study
National Museums of
Scotland Library
SHEDL operations

16. SHEDL – negotiating principles
 All-in for a deal rather than opt-in
 Usually 3 year contracts, some deals extended to include the NLS,
NMS and NHS Scotland
 Single invoice via JISC Collections
 Minimal annual increases
 Member contributions shared jointly and proportionately
 Strive to include transfer titles when negotiating
 Admin assistance provided
Sir Duncan Rice Library, Aberdeen

17. Collaborative Storage
 Collaborative Academic Store for Scotland: CASS
 Feasibility funded by the Carnegie Trust for the
Universities of Scotland
 Service established in 2004
 Shared storage provided by the NLS and funded by
individual institutions
 Allowed institutions to store low/no use collections
remotely
 Developed a CASS catalogue
 Allowed institutions to de-accession stock duplicated
centrally
 Acted as an exemplar to UKRR

18. Collaborative print management

19. Access
 Reciprocal access to print
collections (including for
borrowing in many cases
 Walk-In access to electronic
resources
 SCURL produced a toolkit
which helps HEIs enable
access to certain electronic
resources (where licenses
allow) for non members of
the university
 Funded by the Scottish
Library and Information
Commission - SLIC
 Both compliment the
collaborative collection
management initiatives
Glasgow Caledonian University Library

20. Commitment to Open Access

21. The Benefits of Sharing

22. Project blog
http://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/benefitsofsharing/2013/04/final-report/

23. http://libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk/benefitsofsharing/the-lms-day/the-final-vote/

24. WITH THANKS TO:
HELEN DURNDELL: SCURL CHAIR
JILL EVANS: SCURL SERVICE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

25. SCURL website http://scurl.ac.uk/
Sir Duncan Rice Library, Aberdeen University
Thank you. Any Questions